Reader Advice Day: Can I Really Eat Fat on Bright Line Eating and Still Lose Weight?

Hi Guys! A great question came into my e-mail yesterday about my dietary experiment of eating high protein and high fat plant based foods while on Bright Line Eating. I just felt like I needed to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you on this subject. Here’s the question:

Hi Wendy,

Congrats on the beautiful new blog. I have a question for you. Thanks to your posts, I am on day 15 of BLE. I was just wondering what you usually eat for your protein? I find myself staying away from tofu and hummus because of the fat content (I still hear Dr. Mcdougall/AJ in my head). That pretty much leaves me at beans for every meal. Have you been eating the fat portion and the higher fat proteins and still losing weight?
Thanks,
Nicki

I realize that this is quite shocking for a lot of folks who have been experimenting with very low-fat plant-based diets for the past many years.

I tend to shy away from using nuts as the protein at lunch or dinner because they (2 full ounces of nuts averages 370 calories) are so incredibly calorie dense. Neither tofu, tempeh, yogurt or hummus are calorie dense choices on the BLE plan. These plant-based protein sources are far lower in calorie density than most protein sources that comes from animals.

I also eat a chia/hemp pudding for breakfast every day, so seeds are my breakfast protein. I eat 2 ounces of avocado for my fat every day for lunch. At dinner, usually my fat is 1/2 ounce of nuts or nut butter (I love licking nut butter off of a spoon for dessert!).

When I am in a restaurant, I figure that the plant-based food that I am eating has approximately the 1 tablespoon of oil that is allowable on the BLE weight loss plan, but there’s a part of me that knows that I’m probably eating more oil than that, which is a whole nother story!

As of now, I have lost 12 pounds eating this way. It has taken months and months of deprogramming in order for me to feel comfortable eating this way, but I am learning to trust this method. The only way to do that is to just surrender to BLE as an experiment. You can always go back to eating McDougall/UWL style if this doesn’t do it for you.

Is the McDougall style working for you right now? If it is, maybe sticking with beans only as your protein on BLE works for your body? We all have to work with what we were given and we really are all a little different! With BLE, you figure out what works for you and you work with that.

(In case you are curious, this was Nicki’s response: No, Mcdougall/AJ didn’t work for me, which is why I was so open to BLE. I am fully committed to the WFPB lifestyle from a health perspective, but it has become painfully clear that I can NOT eat ad libitum. I just can’t get the fat fear out of my head.)

Here’s my analysis of why Bright Line Eating is working for me, and yes, I am eating a much higher fat plant-based diet:

With Bright Line Eating, we are not eating ad libitum, so it’s just not unlimited quantities of food. If you are looking to eat unlimited quantities of food, it might (probably?) be an issue if you are including higher fat plant-based foods in your diet. You most likely can’t eat unlimited quantities of tempeh, tofu and avocado and have a great result, but who am I to say? Some people certainly can. I’m a overeater, so I can’t.

With Bright Line Eating, there’s a very scientific methodology to the whole thing. We journal all of our food (I like to use My Fitness Pal as my journal instead of a paper journal so that I have all of the records and nutritional data at my fingertips), weigh our portions at each meal, weigh ourselves regularly (different for different folks), and track our weight on a graph so that we look at trends and not individual numbers.

These four things in combination reveal data that you can use down the line to tweak the Bright Line Eating program into one that works for your unique metabolism. If you find that you are not losing weight or not losing at a pace that makes you happy, you are free to drop some or all of the fat from your diet if you wish. I have not found that this in necessary for my weight loss. In fact, the opposite has been true. I am happily losing weight while eating reasonable amounts of highly nutritious plant-based fats.

I want to add that I was very happy eating ad libitum (a la McDougall/UWL) and I am very happy eating measured portions of food (a la BLE). Why? Because the thing that makes me happy is getting closer to my right sized body. I really don’t have a preference for one way of eating over the other–my only preference is for using the method that actually works for me at the time. So for now and for the forseeable future, I’m going to stick with BLE because that is the eating method that is bringing me closer to my right sized body. Plus, the entire BLE program is totally incredible on every level (emotional and physical), so there’s that too.

With that said, I do have my suspicions about which program is healthier for me in the long run, fat or no fat, and that would have to be BLE.

It’s the plan that promotes eating some healthy fat with each meal. I find that my memory isn’t compromised when I am eating fat the way that it was when I was on a no added fat plant-based diet. I also tend to defer to the recent studies that were done on the long-term health benefits of including soy (tofu, tempeh, etc.), avocado, nuts and seeds in your diet, which Dr. Greger talks about extensively on the Nutrition Facts website.

It’s the plan that I find to be the most supportive of long-term peace with food than I have ever discovered.

It’s the plan that allows for the kind of life experiences that I personally value, which includes eating in restaurants at least once a week without guilt.

It’s the plan that I trust, based on the results that I see and the scientific study that is being conducted as to the unusual efficacy of the program within the sustainable weight loss world.

It’s the community that I feel is most supportive of me developing a healthy and loving relationship with food and more importantly, with myself, at this point in my life.

Comments

I feel okay adding in the whole food fats due to the low calorie food plan. I think adding in the liquid processed oils would be wrong a la Esselstyn, creating heath problems with the endothelial cells and heart health.

Beautifully and clearly written. I appreciate your honesty and the depth of your sharing. Reading about your experience is extremely helpful for me. Thank you for all of the time you give to responding to questions with such depth and transparency. Many blessings to unstoppable you! I 💜 You!!

Wendy,
What about a recipe that calls for 1/2 cashews but is a dressing that needs creaminess? What about lite or full fat coconut milk? I have always avoided these before but tried one with cashews and it made a huge difference in taste.

Thanks Wendy! I’ve been hoping you would post on this topic and share your progress with BLE to date. I did the McDougall/AJ/Esselstyn approach for two years and all of my health issues dissappeared. All of them. I’ve been dismissed as a heart patient from the cardiologist and my gynecologist was happy to report that surgery to correct fibroid issues no longer was her recommendations. There were more health issues to disappeared but these weren the two biggies. For all this, I”m truly grateful. The one thing that hasn’t dissappeared is my weight which has always been a problem for me. So based on your blogging/feedback…I too started BLE and so far so good! I’m losing weight for the first time in 10 years and find the program shockingly easy to follow. I would love to see what recipes you’ve come up with if you would share since I’ve always been a fan of your recipes.

Thank you for everything you do here. I know this is part of your journey, but I also hope you know how much you help and inspire others! Truly!

Totally agree with everything you said – actually was coming here to say thanks for mentioned BLE in a post about a month ago. I was looking for information on the program and your blog came up in my search…turns out I had found you about a year ago when I was at that time searching up UWL which I just could not connect with – no disrespect just wasn’t for me. I am absolutely in love with BLE – and who doesn’t adore SPT? Four weeks into bootcamp and have released 25 pounds – crazy I know. I actually am eating cashews and sunflower seeds as my lunch and dinner fats and am having no issues with losing. I won’t use them as protein because 2oz is definitely too many nuts but for me due to calorie density but the .5 as a fat serving is working out well. Again, thanks for posting about BLE and see you in Bright Lifers (well when they let me join!!!).

Your authentic honesty overwhelms me. Thank you, I am on the same path. Fats in healthy whole plants rule for us mentally and emotionally in my personal experience. Thank you for chatting with me that day I called you about mussar. Stay strong and learning on your journey to self knowledge. Also enjoyed all your podcasts. You seem teach the person you are interviewing as much as they teach us.😊 Warmly, Karin M. PS. Perhaps this can be a personal email to you

Day One, breakfast, organic bulk oatmeal with salba chia seed and great lakes powdered bone broth and a dash of 1% milk, lunch, big cut of lettuce, half an avocado, and some beans, dinner, small piece of salmon, half a baked potato with BUTTER, half a papaya.

The bad sugar headaches go away after about 4 days. I have been on the BLE for 10 days and have lost 10 pounds already. The Hardest part is watching the clock until my next meal, so have some distractions available and drink LOTS of water. I do a short 6 minute cardio routine and stretches. This diet works as long as you don’t backslide into just sneaking a snack in between.

I am considering doing BLE but having such a crisis over it! I’m currently doing a lot of work to shift my thoughts to those that support weight loss & dealing with emotional eating. One of the things I’ve promised myself is that I won’t do a diet – and BLE feels so restricted (i.e. Is it really sustainable in the long term?). Another concern I had is that i looove cooking & enjoying all my cookbooks. Do I have to give those up and use only BLE cookbooks and recipes once I start? Thanks for any advice!

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I've come a long way baby! I don't drink smoothies anymore, not even green ones . . . Hello. My name is Wendy. This is my story.

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I am not a doctor or nutritionist. All information on Healthy Girl's Kitchen is meant for educational and informational purposes only. Products and/or information are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease. Readers are advised to do their own research and make decisions in partnership with their health care provider.